Ceramics and glass business news of the week

Kyocera is completing Brazil’s largest highway solar-lighting project on the Arco Metropolitano do Rio de Janeiro, a highway project connecting the five main highways crossing Rio de Janeiro. Slightly more than half of the 145-km highway will be lit at night by stand-alone solar streetlights powered by Kyocera solar modules, installed by Soter over the last two years with funding from the Rio de Janeiro State Government.

Morgan Advanced Materials has made a further significant investment in its capability to produce high-specification ceramic hydrocyclone liners at its manufacturing facility in Rugby, Warwickshire, following unprecedented levels of demand from the oil and gas sector. The investment involves the recruitment of five new employees as well as additional kilning and grinding capacity to satisfy increased demand from South East Asian and African oilfields.

The boards of directors of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Precision Castparts Corp. (PCC) have unanimously approved a definitive agreement for Berkshire Hathaway to acquire, for $235 per share in cash, all outstanding PCC shares. The transaction is valued at approximately $37.2 billion, including outstanding PCC net debt. PCC will continue to do business around the world under the Precision Castparts name and maintain its headquarters in Portland, Oregon.

UAE-based RAK Ceramics, one of the world’s largest makers of ceramic goods, has fully acquired its subsidiary in Iran, the latest investor seeking opportunities after Tehran’s nuclear deal. As a close neighbor to Iran, the UAE stands to be a major beneficiary of closer trade relations once sanctions against the Islamic Republic are lifted as part of the July 14 deal with big powers mandating limits on its disputed nuclear activity.

Glass oven door are exploding, sending glass flying and in some cases causing injuries. CBS2 investigators exposed this potential safety threat weeks ago; now, there is a request for a recall after a local woman speaks out about one oven in particular. Alice Rollins of Chicago keeps sounding the alarm about a potential danger in kitchens across the country, and now there is mounting pressure to recall a popular oven with glass doors that have been exploding.

It is with great sadness that the American Concrete Institute mourns Daniel W. Falconer, ACI Managing Director of Engineering who passed away peacefully on July 29, 2015, at age 59, in his Hartland, MI, home surrounded by his family, after a 16-month battle with colon cancer.